Obama's Most-Viewed Video as President? It's a Table-Slapper

By Garance Franke-Ruta
The Internet loves a spectacle. The latest proof of that comes in an analysis by TechPresident.com's Micah Sifry, which finds one notable exception to a "dramatic decline in views of videos on Obama's YouTube channel" since he became president.

What is this exception? Sifry describes it as Obama's "most unscripted moment in the White House."

He's talking, of course, of the president's "swatting of a large fly during a CNBC interview three months ago. ... Versions of the clip have amassed more than 4 million views. And for good reason: it's funny, and it reveals a side of Obama -- a natty Ninja flyswatter -- that people can both laugh at and identify with."

It also helps that the fly incident has been remixed with a Ninja-movie style voiceover by Barely Political -- the same team that brought the viral Web hit "I Got a Crush on Obama" video -- and has been posted on YouTube by multiple users. It's even been reimagined in a cartoon from the perspective of the fly.

The rest of the traffic to Obama's YouTube channel is primarily coming to view older videos, rather than the "newer material his team has been posting to engage the public in current issues," says Sifry.

He concludes, "The internet is a great place for certain kinds of political content, and not for others. Scripted speeches and planned soundbites don't get forwarded around very much online."

The metaphor of the premeditated fly-swat gives comfort to those who question Obama's public proclivity toward compromise.

This is a man with a mission. He's set his goals and he knows innately the right time to mount his offensive. He possesses the patience required of calculation. He will strike -- but he will not flail, or attack prematurely. He will seize the moment -- when the moment is right.

And those who mistake his measured application of force for cowardice may end up like the fly, surprised, stunned and defeated.

Warrantless, covert placement of GPS tracking devices and misuse of cell phone technology to hunt down the unjustly targeted enables this grassroots terrorism.

But the Obama administration continues to allow these warrantless intrusions into the lives of unjustly targeted American families.

By its naivete -- its unquestioning rubber-stamp approval of the deployment of these destructive technologies and programs -- the Obama administration risks presiding over the destruction of democracy, the rule of law, and personal liberty.

The bureaucratic saboteurs and Dr. Strangeloves behind these multi-agency crimes against humanity and the Constitution must be removed from power, immediately, before this silent genocide claims more victims -- endangering the Obama presidency while making a mockery of the rule of law.

I'm not sure if you're limiting this category to unmixed videos or even videos posted to the President's YouTube channel, but the 13 second Obama/Kanye remix has been available for roughly nine days and has 3,674,551 views. At this rate, it will quickly surpass the fly swatting moment.